April 21, 2014

Column: Declaring the Obamacare Debate Over Won't Save Democrats

Apart from gutting America's military, our standing in the world, our fiscal stability, the economy, the office of the presidency, conventional energy sources, the free market and religious liberty, Obama has little to boast about other than Obamacare, so let him go for it.

Yes, let him gloat, because the more he bloviates in defense of the indefensible -- the more he spins the unspinnable -- the more damage he'll do to the cause he's trying to promote: the election of Democratic congressmen in November.

Obama wasn't content with having just one news conference to tout the "success" of his Obamacare sign-up efforts, the one in which he fraudulently claimed he had met his goal of enrolling 7 million new people to fund this monster. As I've previously written, that number was staggeringly misleading for a variety of reasons, including that millions of new enrollees already had other coverage, far too few were in the necessary "young and healthy" category, 15 to 20 percent of the enrollees hadn't secured coverage because they hadn't paid their premiums, and an estimated 1 million more people lost their insurance and couldn't afford to replace it because Obamacare's mandated coverage provisions caused premiums to increase. (Also, how hard is it to add enrollees when uninsured Americans have a gun to their heads to force them to acquire insurance? Isn't this kind of like a bank robber's bragging about his "earnings?")

Obama conducted another self-congratulatory news conference just a few days ago to celebrate that 8 million people have now signed up, and this time, he was even more baselessly triumphant. As you may have heard, he declared -- he is the president, after all -- that the debate is now over and instructed his subjects -- i.e., Republicans -- that "it's well past time to move on."

Oh, maybe that's why he wouldn't respond to questions during the first news conference. Why should he have to provide information when there's nothing left to discuss? Silly us.

I'm not quite sure, though, that this "debate is over" edict is going to work too well, as a recent Fox News poll reports that 61 percent of Americans believe that Obama "lies" about important public issues either "most of the time" or "some of the time." As The Washington Examiner's editors aptly noted, "no other president in living memory has conducted himself in a manner that warranted even asking if such a description was appropriate."

There is just no getting around Obama's Obamacare lies: "If you like your doctor or health care provider, you can keep them," and health care insurance premiums for an average family of four will go down by some $2,500.

As painfully narcissistic as Obama is, the immediate reason he is so often sprinting to the presidential podium now -- when he otherwise studiously avoids it -- is not to defend Obamacare because it's his "baby," though that is a close second. It is to change the narrative on Obamacare in a desperate attempt to prevent an electoral bloodbath for Democrats in November.

Unhappily for Obama, one of his biggest Obamacare lies -- the one that served as the main premise underlying our allegedly urgent need for Obamacare in the first place -- has yet to be fully realized by the American public he continues to victimize with this law.

The primary impetus for Obamacare was that 46 million Americans were uninsured and Obamacare would correct that. Forget the unconscionable fraud in that number, and put aside the fact that Obamacare is not getting appreciably more people insured. Even if it ends up doing better, don't forget that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that after the law is fully implemented, some 30 million will remain uninsured.

The main fraud in Obama's sales pitch about the millions of uninsured is its implication that insurance coverage equals access to care. No matter how many net millions more, if any, end up with coverage, what about their access to care, the quality of care they will receive, their ability to choose their doctors and type of care, and the cost of it all -- to individuals and to the government?

People are discovering the inevitable with Obamacare -- that with their newly acquired insurance, many doctors will not accept them for treatment. This is forcing people to drive long distances to get physician and hospital care. People are being forced to switch doctors they like. Their premiums are being jacked up.

On top of all this, Obama's economy continues to tank, and he is demonstrating himself to be a foreign policy buffoon, dragging down America's image after promising to rebuild it.

Obama can declare the debate over all he wants to, but if the debate is now over, Republicans will win in November -- big-time -- which means, with a little hope and prayer, that we're moving that much closer to repealing his "signature achievement," restoring America's military, addressing the debt, reinvigorating the market and reinstituting policies of economic growth.